ust a quick entry … for all you graphic designers/artists as well as those who have a fondness for a well-designed page of any sort, but ESPECIALLY for all of you who have a lifetime love affair with fonts – this little video is for you. You may want to play it twice, (or listen very attentively), because there’s a bit of funny dialogue that isn’t spoken as clearly as it could be in a couple spots. Enjoy!
Creativity
Be A Better Writer and Feed the Hungry
Having a great vocabulary is just one of the hallmarks of a great writer. Whether you write novels or picture books, or just a letter to the editor, a broad vocabulary is a tremendous asset. Good grammatical skills are another plus. So here’s an idea – why not strengthen your vocabulary and sharpen your grammar skills and help feed hungry people around the world? You can do both at FreeRice.
When you visit the FreeRice site, you have the opportunity to play a vocabulary game. For each correct answer, FreeRice will donate 10 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end world hunger. It’s multiple choice – if you get the answer correct, you will get another word challenge which will be more difficult. If you get it wrong, you will be offered an easier word challenge. You can even hear a vocabulary word pronounced if you’re unsure about it.
The site opens on the vocabulary section, but you may also choose grammar, famous world paintings, geography, math, chemistry or foreign languages. For every correct answer, FreeRice tallies your grain donation, first by grains, then by bowls. You can indicate on another page if you would like to have your last scores and grain donations remembered for your next visit.
FreeRice has two goals: 1. Provide education to everyone for free. 2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free. How can you go wrong?
So get working on your vocabulary; get feeding some people in need, and get going!
WARNING: This is very addictive!
French Bulldog Sketches – II
I’ll admit right off – this is a lure. Who am I luring? Well, I don’t know exactly. What I do know is that there are lots of you checking out my previous post on French Bulldog sketches, yet nary a comment. So this always makes me curious.
Are you Frenchie people? Bully breed people? Do you just love looking at Frenchie drawings? Needless to say, as this is a focus of much of my animal drawing subject matter as well as children’s book illustration at this time, I have plenty to post. But I am left wondering … what is it you’re looking for?
Should you be interested, my Frenchie Banana Split drawing is part of a set of blank note cards, Frenchie Sundae Pups, (sorry, no longer available) featuring 4 adorable babies and ice cream. The little vignette of the Frenchie Fairy is another blank note card, and with every purchase of these I will donate $4.00 per box to the French Bulldog Rescue Network, (FBRN), who is currently inundated with Frenchies in need due to the economy. Even if you don’t buy my note cards, if you’re here because you’re a Frenchie lover – go visit and help them out!
Hope you enjoy these little summer-y sweeties, and do say hello!
p.s. Find more Frenchie cars and art here!
Note: All illustrations, drawings and photographs on this site are © Jeanne Balsam and may not be reproduced in any format without written permission. Thank you!
Living By Water
How lucky am I? I live 3 houses away from a river. And walking 4 very short blocks, I can walk onto the bridge that takes me to neighboring PA.
Yesterday I went out walking for my exercise and decided to take my camera. Something I don’t do often enough. I was immediately drawn to the river on this sunny day – blue sky, no clouds. I headed onto the bridge, not to go to PA, but just to see the river. Even in winter, with not a leaf in sight, it was magnificent.
I am happy when living by water. I am always happy to just be near water – the ocean, a lake, a river – there is something calming, inspiring and renewing about it. I wonder if this is universal or something belonging to just some of us. Is it because my family used to go the shore throughout my childhood and my Dad taught me to swim in the ocean? Is it because in my tween and teen years we used to vacation up at Highland Lakes every summer? Or perhaps that we used to go on a Sunday to Cooper’s Pond in the neighboring town and feed the ducks? I took some of my very first photos with my new Brownie camera there. Maybe it’s because I’m a water sign. Maybe I was once a mermaid. Maybe I am just forever enchanted by nature.
Our creativity, in whatever way we express ourselves, is influenced by all of who we are and who we have been. I believe when we reach inside ourselves and touch upon the good things, the meaningful things, in our pasts – or even find them for the first time – we are enriched in every way. Yet we make so little time for these things … to let ourselves be with our own enchantment … to just let ourselves be. Today, for this, I thank the river.
Remembering Who We Are
It really can be difficult to find the time to write, draw, dummy, or be creative when there is just too much to do. I do journal faithfully, nearly every day without fail, and on days when I want to blog, allow myself the luxury of that being my journaling for the day. But there are days when my journal entry looks like raging chicken scratch and a desperate plea for someone to toss out a life-preserver. We all have those days, sometimes too many of them.
It’s these days in particular which remind us that it pays to have something REALLY simple we can do daily to help us get centered or calm regardless of what life has in store for us on any given day. For me, that’s lighting a candle. I realized some time ago that candles are not a luxury, but a necessity. So I always have a nice variety on hand, scents that I love and make me happy, and nice things to burn them in.
I don’t think it really matters what it is that we do, but just something small that grounds us. My morning coffee – also a necessity – does that, too, but the candle is different. Choosing the scent I want to smell, what holder I’d most enjoy and where to put it takes just moments, but starts my day well. Or better. A small ritual that sets the tone.
We all can benefit from starting our day, or even a task. with something easy and small, whatever it is, that clears us a bit, lights our way, and helps us remember who we are. Do you have some small daily ritual that gets your day off on the right foot and centers you?
Still A Dreamer 